Apps on the SD card

New Member

Just wondering if anyone here has set up their sd card so that they can save apps to it? I was thinking about doing this but I heard that there were problems with getting updates. I heard that you had to uninstall all apps and reinstall them so that everything is on the sd card. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

New Member

Super Moderator

I agree what is this fascination with apps on the SD card? No body else does it. It stems from a brief period on Android where internal memory was being shorted by manufacturers so people had to resort to this method to get around the issue. Now even Android doesn't support it and apps aren't coded for it. Put your apps on internal storage and everything else on the SD card. It gives you the same amount of free and used space at the end of the day no matter which is stored where. Plus you have the added bonus of all your apps being available and working should you decide to remove the SD card.

New Member

The actual process only takes a couple of minutes to setup and involves changing from fat32 to ntsf(?) on the sd card. As to why people are fascinated with this, it's because in a few months, as the amount of apps available increases, most people with a 32 GB are going to rapidly run out of room on the internal memory. I don't know how J515OP figures you get the same amount of space. If I put a 64 GB card in my surface, I now have 64 GB of room for apps unlike the 16 GB or so that you start with. Also, if anyone actually wants to contribute something useful to this thread and actually provide me with some help or advice on doing this it would again be appreciated.

Super Moderator

1GB of data on internal memory & 1GB of apps on the SD is the SAME as 1GB of apps on the internal and 1GB of data on the SD. It doesn't matter where you store it, it takes up the same amount of space.

Of course you could put both apps and data on the SD card but now you just have 2GB of empty space sitting on your tablet or both on internal memory but the point of data on the SD card is to make sure you are maximizing apps space internally.

Are you seriously contemplating installing 64GB of apps? For the record the average size of Android and iOs apps is about 40MB which is including large game apps. Many apps are much smaller than that. We don't know the average size of Windows app yet but using the the others as a guide, that means 1GB holds about 25 apps and 64GB would hold more that 1,600 apps and even 10GB is 250 apps. Do you really need that many apps installed at any given time?

Smartphone owners average 41 apps per device, according to a report from Nielsen. Contrary to your statement most people are not going to rapidly run out of internal space for apps as that works out to less than 2GB of apps per device.

Even if you want to try out and use many many apps there is no penalty for uninstalling the apps as your purchases are saved in the cloud and available for for reinstallation any time you need them. You can essentially horde apps in the cloud and get them as necessary if you simply must have everything you see.

If you want to put apps on your SD card you can do that and a simple search would have led you to your answer.

New Member

I don't yet have a Surface but my experience with desktop Windows is that, over time, updates cause a massive reduction in available space on a small disk partition. That is why I would want to put as much as possible on an SD card. Will Windows RT be different? Sorry if this has already been answered elsewhere.

Super Moderator

Hi JW, it would be nice if there was some sort of auto clean but I am not aware of that feature for updates on Windows 8/RT. It would sort of surprise me though because leaving the files is a safety net. With older versions of Windows you can reclaim that space by deleting the update files and logs. Windows 8/RT should at least be the same in that regard.

New Member

Do you ever help anyone or do you just go on long diatribes defending your opinion? Once again, you've added nothing to this thread. Thank you ZachBui. You should be the "super" moderator. Also, j515pop, the thread you point too was asking before there was a known solution to this problem and is not even the same question. Maybe you should pay more attention to the questions instead of your own response. Your last sentence seems to indicate that I should have gone elsewhere to ask my question. So you want people to join, but only ask questions that you like? Great people skills you've got there. Thanks again to ZachBui and wrtapps.com for the help.

Super Moderator

Do you ever help anyone or do you just go on long diatribes defending your opinion? Once again, you've added nothing to this thread. Thank you ZachBui. You should be the "super" moderator. Also, j515pop, the thread you point too was asking before there was a known solution to this problem and is not even the same question. Maybe you should pay more attention to the questions instead of your own response. Your last sentence seems to indicate that I should have gone elsewhere to ask my question. So you want people to join, but only ask questions that you like? Great people skills you've got there. Thanks again to ZachBui and wrtapps.com for the help.

I try to offer help as much as possible. This is a forum not a customer service help site. It is not the job of the staff to assist with every problem presented. I enjoy this forum and the discussions surrounding the Surface devices and Windows 8. Opinions are a large part of the discussions otherwise we would all just be posting the same specs over and over.

From our sister site and originally posted on XDA: Why won't one of the devs/users/moderators/admins answer my question/post?

I saw this over at forum.xda-developers.com as part of a bigger thread, but found it extremely appropriate to copy here. In answer to the question asked in the title of this thread, I have paraphrased the response to be:

Because they:

1. Have day jobs.
2. Your question answers itself (you have a brick)
3. Are busy coding and fixing the next release of <insert ROM Name, app name, hack here>, and will answer if/when they have time.
4. Have seen your question 23 times already in this thread or forum: the search function is your friend.
5. Are not being paid to read forums and go through 100's of posts, many of which ask the same question (although they do this out of the kindness of their hearts thankfully!!!).
6. We really don't know the answer to your question

And,

1. Do not know the answer. We do not have every tablet on the market
2. Are not sure what the question you are asking. Some pleas for assistance are very vague.
3. Too busy trying to learn how to make our own tablet(s) work, so do not have the time to help you. Sorry

We all want to assist, but this is a labor of love. No one is really getting rich out of this. Some of us are poorer buying a tablet or accessory that we later regret. Yes We buy these ourselves. There is no secret special discount being a Mod/Admin/SuperMod.

The fact is that the link provided by ZachBui is exactly the same as the link in the thread that already covered the subject. It was very nice of ZachBui to post the link but technically your question and this thread is a repeat of an issue already addressed on this forum and you have added nothing by repeating a question and not using the search function. You also posted under Microsoft Surface General Discussion, not under Microsoft Surface Help. I could have simply posted a link to the other thread and locked this one as a redirect.

Instead I expanded on a statement made by another member regarding the point of putting apps on an SD card. My post contains a lot of useful information and furthers the discussion regarding the amount of space apps use and the need of placing apps on an SD card at all. My posts contain legitimate questions about the fascination of installing apps on SD card and if you really intend to fill a 64GB SD card with apps. It provokes thought as to the necessity but does not say don't do it. If you simply wanted and answer on how to accomplish an ends to a means you could have simply Google searched or used the forum search and received your answer since you don't appear to be interested in contributing.

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